The Folly of Prayer

We here in the Simmons' home have had the flu. Hence the reason I've not posted the final reason we should pray (as seen in 2 Chronicles 7)

I talked about the #1 reason we don't pray: We don't need to.
I wrote about the first reason we should pray: because prayer allows us to know God and ourselves
And the second reason we should pray: prayer is a unique privilege & God promises to attend our prayers.

But His attention is not all He promises. Look at 2 Chronicles 7:12-16:

“I have heard your prayer and have chosen this place [the temple the people had just built] for myself as a temple for sacrifices. When I shut up the heavens so that there is no rain, or command locusts to devour the land or send a plague among my people,  if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land.  Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place.  I have chosen and consecrated this temple so that my Name may be there forever. My eyes and my heart will always be there.

 He doesn't just promise to hear our prayers, but he promises to do something about them, to do something with them.

"If my people pray...I will hear..., I will forgive..., I will heal."

We should pray because prayer changes the world. 

And when we don't pray we are acting like idiots.

This week good friends had a crisis and needed prayer, so they called. I wanted to jump in the car, and head to their house (hours away) because I felt like I needed to be present, but with the flu and little ones about me, going was impossible. So I headed back to my little uncomfortable chair to sit and pray. Going back to my room and sitting felt pointless and weak. I felt like I was letting my friends down by not going to them, taking care of their practical needs, distracting them with my funniness.

But then God met me.  

He was present with them. He was taking care of their needs. He was comforting them AND He was attentive to my prayers on their behalf. He was taking my prayers and using them to bless my friends. My prayers were as powerful as my presence. More powerful in some ways, because God called me to pray for them, not to be with them.

Here are some challenging thoughts on prayer from John Piper:

Friends! God will win your communities, your neighborhoods, your campuses, your workplace. Scripture tells us that in the end all knees will bow, all tongues confess that Christ is Lord of all. And as He is winning He is willing to take your prayers and incorporate them into what He is doing.

He will heal your families, your friends and your own heart. And as He's healing, He is willing to use your prayers to be a part of that restorative work.

God is changing the world. He is breaking down strongholds and rescuing people from every nation. And He is willing to take our prayers, our hopes, our dreams and fold them into that change.

We can't junk up the order. We can't jump into prayer just to get Him do what we want. That is not the purpose of prayer! We pray so that we can know God. So we can grow closer to Him. As we are praying, as we are pressing in closer and closer to the heart of the Living God we will start to ask for things that He wants, and we can confidently ask Him for what our hearts long for. We can passionately ask Him to forgive our sins (both individual and corporate) and we can, with as much detail as our imaginations can afford us, ask Him to heal our land.

As I ponder this reality of prayer I have to admit that I wholeheartedly agree with Piper, that we are fools if we don't take God up on His offer to pray.

So pray!